The lessons › Lesson 5 of 6
How do I stay responsible?
Being honest about using AI, respecting other people, and keeping your own judgement as the last step.
Be open about using AI where it matters. If a teacher, employer, publisher or reader would reasonably expect to know that AI helped, tell them, and follow the rules of your school, workplace or publisher.
Respect other people. Do not put their personal details, private messages or images into a tool without good reason and their agreement, and do not use AI to imitate a real person or to mislead anyone.
Give credit for your sources, and check that quotations and references are real before you repeat them. Your judgement is the last step before anything goes out.
An example
You use an assistant to tidy a report at work. You check the facts, keep your own conclusions, and add a line saying an AI tool helped with the drafting, because your workplace asks for that.
Try this
Find your school's, employer's or publisher's guidance on using AI. If there is none, write three sentences you would be comfortable following.
Check yourself
Is it fine to paste a friend's private message into a chatbot to get help replying?
Think first: it is their words and their privacy. Leave out names and details, or ask them.
Who is responsible for a mistake in AI-assisted work you publish?
You are.
What AI cannot do here
It cannot know the rules that apply to you, or what the people you are writing for expect.
Sources
Last reviewed 1 October 2026. Glossary · Report a mistake